***For some reason, I stopped receiving comment notifications via email last Friday or so. Consequently, it is much more difficult for me to reply to your comments, so while I try to figure out what's going on, I thought I would post a little catch-up stuff, some of which is in reply to your comments.

***For those wondering, pseudonyms are not (at this point) allowed on Google+. They want you to use "what people call you in real life." When I joined, I signed up as Mrs Fours (to sneak around the rule, which also does not allow numbers or symbols). They caught me and threatened expulsion (haha, not really, but I like that word) and gave me four days to change my name "or else," so I'm now Barbara Jean. What?! Some people do call me that IRL. I'm not going to give on this issue--I'm just waiting for them to change their policy.

***Other than that, I love Google+. It will not replace Facebook for anyone (at least not at this point), but if you are a lifelong learner who loves meeting new people, learning about stuff you are otherwise clueless about (culture, art, photography, politics), and/or enjoy networking on topics of importance to you (especially those about which your friends/family could care less), then you will love Google+. It is NOT the type of place where you go hang up a profile and wait for stuff to happen, though; the only way to enjoy Google+ is to interact, engage with people you find inspiring, entertaining, etc.

***School officially starts for students on September 1st. I have been working for weeks (home visits, IEP stuff, planning). My official start day is the 26th (I think.)

***I'm having my Difference Makers kids over tonight for a little "reunion." Since we're not going to meet until October (September's too busy for me.), I wanted to be able to catch up with them, see how their summers went, and do a little bit of planning for this year. I'm looking forward to it.

***Brennan (my student who was hit by a car) didn't so much as "snap out of it" as he did move into what I'm told is a "new phase" of coma--He is wide awake, looks around, moves a bit, but does not communicate. I saw him yesterday, and he clearly did not recognize me but did look directly at me a couple of times in a mildly-curious manner. It's kind of like the lights are on, and somebody's home, but he's sitting in the LazyBoy, watching TV and ignoring the doorbell. Still, this is a major improvement--waaay better than was predicted for him a week ago, so I'm impressed. Today he starts a six-week, intensive therapy program at the hospital. I know he's going to keep making progress. Keep those prayers coming, as they are working!

***By the way, Kyle has received all of the textbooks he rented from Campus Book Rentals and is very happy with the speed with which they arrived, as well as the quality of the books--Some are brand new, and others look "just fine." Thought I'd mention that, in case you were wondering.

Okay, I'm happy now--Just had to check in. I hope this finds you all enjoying what's left of your summer. (If you're in the path of Hurricane Irene, I'm keeping you in my prayers.)

Google+ will always be waiting--There's no harm in letting everyone else work the kinks out of it. That said, I do love that right now, the Google folks are actually IN there, responding to user requests---They do want to make their consumers happy. It's not going anywhere for a while.

I wonder how they determine what names are real vs. fake. I'm sure there's someone out there with a real name of Fours. I hope your student continues to improve!And I hope you enjoy the reunion dinner.

I don't want this to sound callous but "lights are on, and somebody's home, but he's sitting in the LazyBoy, watching TV and ignoring the doorbell" describes me very well and gave me a laugh.I hope someday soon he can laugh at the description himself.

As for Brennan, I witnessed a similar situation when my kids were in a bad accident. One of their roommates came from a coma to awake to finally a brain rattle. He knew people and then didn't. He rambled and made no sense. Eventually he came out of it. Only God could build such a miraculous organ!

My first name for everything (including facebook) is Mightymom, my last name is Sarah. Anyone who doesn't like that is trying to get personal informaion for scary reasons. period. And they don't need me.

Since you mentioned you were having comment-type issues I thought I'd call attention to a post I did yesterday about my own comment moderation issues. I had changed to comment moderation a few short months ago -much to my dislike of using that set-up -but this one spam type blogger was about driving me bonkers so, figured I had to do something to contain/constrain him/her. Well, the whole process was also giving me a strange response then from Blogger in which it routed me, after moderating a comment, to a Blogger site where I got a message saying that "You -meaning me -and showing my g-mail address here -don't have access to that page" (or wording to that effect. Now why would I, as the blog owner/writer/moderator NOT have access to that particular site? If anyone has the answer to that, please let me know what it is! So yesterday then, after writing that post, I removed the comment moderation and don't you just know it but the pain in the butt blogger that drove me to putting comment moderation returned to post a comment,yep, first thing this morning! ARRGH! Damned if you do, damned if you don't seems to apply here to the comment issues and also to Blogger for their unexplained explanation about comment moderation! Go figure, Huh?

Button, button, who's got a button? Click on the Blogroll tab at the top of this page for a visual cornucopia of blog buttons from some of my favorite bloggers, ripe for the picking! Don't see yours? Send the code my way, and I'd be happy to add it :)

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Mom always said that copying is the sincerest form of flattery. In this case, she is wrong. Copying my writings/photos (without my permission) is just plain stealing. Mom might forgive you, but I won't. Don't do it.